Saturday, July 14, 2007

It all started at the All-Star break of the last season (2006). The Pirate fans everywhere noticed that the Pittsburgh Pirates have lost many, many one-run games. (Games decided by one run)

They were 27-54 (.333) at the end of the first half, and they were 8-23 (.258) in one-run games. Obviously, the winning percentage (.258) and win loss difference (-15) were worst in the Majors. Then I thought, "How can I show the Pirates' record to accentuate their terrible performance in those one-run games?"

After some discussions with my colleagues, I came to the conclusion that the best way was to show everything. Not summaries, but every single datum = game. After some more discussions with the colleagues, I created what would become the Bivariate Baseball Score Plots. (And the Team was formed.)

So at the heart of this project, there is a dedicated and irate Pirate fan in Nashville. Well, actually our team of four happens to have 2 Pirate fans. The other two are a Brewer fan and a guy who doesn't care much about baseball.